


Thunder

by Shinsun



Category: Hotblood!
Genre: Centaurs, Gen, PTSD, War flashbacks, loose headcanon, minor sap, these two being idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:11:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3179912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinsun/pseuds/Shinsun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A thunderstorm in the middle of the night reveals some things about Rook that Asa didn't know, and as Asa tries to calm him down and alleviate his fear of thunder and lightning, he ends up surprising Rook too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thunder

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during Rook's first spring working as Asa's secretary. ...Just an idea that popped into my head because of starlock mentioning in a caption that Rook had a possible susceptibility to war flashbacks. So of course I took that and ran with it.

The distant crackle of thunder wasn't enough to wake Asa up, but the sharp jolt and audible thud of something smacking into his bed frame - and a muffled "ow" from his indignant secretary below, who it seemed had just hit his head - was. At first he decided to ignore the disturbance, rolling over with an irritable grumble, pulling his blanket up to his chin and trying to get comfortable again. But the initial clap of thunder was shortly followed by another, much louder one, accompanied by a flash of lightning, and he almost heard Rook cringe. He certainly noticed the sound of shuffling and the skitter of hooves as he abruptly, maybe even compulsively, got up.

"What the hell, Rook..." he groaned, voice blurred with grogginess, looking over his shoulder at him blearily, "It's just a storm, go back to sleep."

Rook was tense, standing stock-still in the middle of the room, his only movement the occasional, agitated flick of his tail or a slight shifting of his weight that made the floorboards creak. Asa could almost sense the fight-or-flight instincts riling up in him, but didn't understand where they came from. Surely Rook had sat through his fair share of thunderstorms over the years - Georgia wasn't exactly a desert-dry state - and understood there was nothing to be afraid of. If he was, in fact, afraid and not just...antsy or whatever the hell was up with him.

"What's up with you?" he muttered, keeping his voice flat in hopes of erasing the note of concern he didn't want Rook to pick up on.

"Nothin'," Rook said quickly, looking away, but Asa saw his entire body jump in a violent flinch, one of his hind legs jerking back without aim in a blind kick, when another deafening crash of thunder sounded, closer than before.

Resisting an urge to roll his eyes or sigh exasperatedly, Asa sat up and rubbed his knuckles into his temples, resigning himself to a long, exhausting night dealing with his secretary's possible phobia, even if that meant waiting out the storm before he could get any rest.

"Do you have a...history of anxiety regarding thunderstorms?" he asked, injecting as much patience as he could into the question.

"No," Rook insisted, shaking his head, but his rigid, almost twitchy muscles and darting eyes may very well have put paid to the lie, "I ain't afraid of a little lightnin' an' thunder, I just...ah…" he trailed off, crossing his arms uneasily, and Asa could see him bracing, as if trying to anticipate the next thunderclap so he wouldn't react so strongly.

Asa tilted his head, eyes narrowing in the darkness as he scrutinized him closely, "You know, if you're gonna lie to your boss, you should at least make it convincing."

Rook was silent, tail swishing against his legs, still refusing to look at Asa. After only a few seconds, though, the next echoing bang of thunder sounded overhead, and he - predictably - flinched again, instinctively bolting a step as his teeth clenched around what sounded suspiciously close to a sound of fear. That did it; Asa got stiffly to his feet and crossed the small amount of distance between them, having to tip his head back to meet Rook's eye.

"Rook. Look at me. What's wrong?" he reached out a hesitant hand to smooth the ruffled hair on Rook's withers, but stopped at the rather half-hearted glare he was given. Instead, he leaned against his side, crossing his arms and ankles and trying to settle himself against the irregularly quivering, ribbed expanse of Rook's barrel as he drew breath at uneven intervals, trembling not enough to be seen, but enough to be felt. He was warm, as always, almost soothingly so, but he also seemed to be in a lot of distress, and as his employer, Asa saw it as his responsibility to make his secretary as comfortable as possible here. That included coming to him when things scared or bothered him, he supposed. Emotional comfort was just as important as physical.

"...Used to make me spook," Rook mumbled finally, scraping one hoof against the floor, the vibration of his voice thrumming against Asa's back.

"Pardon?" Asa asked, looking up only to see him looking down.

"You know...freak out. Worse than this. The first time I was outside, an'...I just kept wanting to kick out or rear, or...somethin'...I've only run so hard once in my life."

"And when was that?" Asa asked calmly, noticing how Rook seemed to be ashamed of admitting to running from anything.

Rook's answer was so quiet he almost missed it, and he still didn't look at him; "During the war."

Something clunked into place in Asa's head, and he turned around to face him quickly, "Rook, was this...spooking thing a problem before the war?"

Rook hesitated, and really that was all the answer Asa needed, but he still heard the soft reply, accompanied by a restive rustling of his tail.

"No. No it wasn't…"

Asa didn't have time to reply, and he was glad he'd stopped leaning against Rook when a ricocheting crack of thunder went off with a blinding blaze of lightning. Rook's whole body went taut, and his teeth clacked together as his front legs briefly lifted off the floor. Asa didn't think he'd ever seen him shy like that before, and from the suddenly wild look in his eyes, he would have guessed his secretary was hard-put to keep from bolting right now, or else letting his fear turn him aggressive - which, again, he'd never seen before, but he supposed he wouldn't have put it past the occasionally volatile stallion to turn violent in response to pressure. He'd needed that kind of knee-jerk reaction to survive a war, after all.

Forgetting the negative response he'd gotten before, Asa lightly ran a hand along Rook's flank once he'd calmed, listening to his rough breathing and watching his hooves shift, making sure none of them stepped on his bare feet. Phobia - or war flashbacks perhaps? - or no, he  _would_  turn the heaviest thing he could grab into a horsewhip if the idiot went and broke his foot. To his relief, Rook seemed to relax the barest bit under his gentle touch, but even in the darkness he could see the embarrassed flush coloring his cheeks as he averted his gaze.

"During training…" Rook began slowly, running an uncertain hand through his hair, "We were subjected to hearin' a lot of gunfire, to get us used to it. Everyone was, but especially the centaur soldiers... Used to line us up with the cavalry horses an' fire pistols and rifles repeatedly right behind us. Sometimes blindfolded us so we couldn't even see where it was comin' from. First time they did that, someone took a hoof to the stomach. An' it wasn't one of the horses'."

"So you should be used to hearin' things like that, right?" Asa asked, confused, "Compared to that, a little thunder and lightning shouldn't faze you at all; what happened?"

"The war itself happened," Rook muttered, uncrossing his arms and letting them hang at his sides, "All the trainin' in the world ain't enough to prepare you for that kind of hell. Hearin' that when there was no danger was a lot different from hearin' it and then... watchin' someone's head a couple inches from you explode...knowin' it could have just as easily been you. That there's no reason it shouldn't have been."

Asa nodded to himself, grimacing slightly, "And it's still an issue after six years?"

Rook looked at him strangely, "Well it ain't fuckin' easy to forget. ...Used to be a hell of a lot worse too, now it's just…" He tapered off and glanced at the ceiling briefly.

"Just thunderstorms?"

Rook sighed, "Yeah. Mostly just that."

Asa shifted his weight, arm still resting against Rook's side, "The real storm still hasn't hit yet, you know. It's gonna take awhile to pass now that it's…"

He was interrupted by another reverberating boom overhead, and a burst of bright light illuminating the room. This time Rook still flinched, but otherwise held himself still, tail slashing once against his flank like the crack of a whip.

"I know." He was quiet a moment, and then looked at Asa sidelong, "I'm sorry, boss. Ain't never been my intention to cause you inconvenience -"

Another thunderclap cut him off, much closer to the one before, rumbling around the edges as the storm settled right on top of them.

Asa saw his fists balled tightly at his sides, his jaw clenched, and gave a soft, dry laugh, "You're fine, bronco, don't worry about it. A little midnight therapy session might do my withered old heart some good."

Rook raised an eyebrow skeptically, "I wouldn't trust you with therapy any more than I'd trust you with my firstborn colt, boss. Your idea of kindness is  _not_  firing someone who didn't make your coffee the perfect temperature."

"Then it's a miracle I haven't fired you yet, isn't it?" Asa quipped, nudging him lightly.

Rook ducked his head with a small smirk, seeming to be holding in a laugh, but he didn't snark back as he was usually prone to do. At least he didn't look so panicked or down in the dumps anymore.

" _That's_  it.  _That's_  what I was lookin' for," Asa grinned, standing on his toes to reach up and untie the bandanna from around Rook's neck. Rook gave him a perplexed look, but didn't protest. "Try loosening up some, it won't kill you….Bend down a little for me."

Rook complied, with hesitation, and just as he did, a clap of thunder roared overhead. This time Asa was ready for it, slowly putting the bandanna around Rook's eyes and tying it behind his head, rubbing a hand down his back until the sound passed. He could feel him tensing and shivering, but he hadn't responded so violently to the noise this time.

"That's it," he repeated, his voice low as if soothing a wounded animal, stroking his fingers down his blindfolded secretary's shoulder, lingering at the brand imprinted just above his left foreleg, "Easy… Just like training...there's no danger, nothin' to be afraid of. No one's tryin' to hurt you…"

He felt Rook's muscles shift under his fingers, and heard him clear his throat, but he didn't say anything. Didn't sneer at Asa as he might have expected, or admonish him for being a tactless idiot or an asshole or something.

The next roll of thunder came, the lightning flickering instead of glaring brightly, and on the roof there came the gradual patter of rain, as the angry clouds released their heavy load. He might have imagined it, but as his hands traveled lightly over Rook's hide, smoothing the hairs down in the direction they grew, he almost believed there had been no adverse reaction that time. Rook's tail whisked over his haunch, but it was a much less frantic action, and more of a dismissive one. He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, allowing himself a small smile.

"There you go," he murmured, still using his soothing tone as one of his hands tentatively moved to Rook's arm, giving it an encouraging - though granted, maybe a little bit awkward - pat, "See? No big deal at all."

"The blindfold helps," Rook admitted quietly, inclining his head a little, "And….s-so does knowin' you're here. ...Thanks, Asa."

"No need to thank me, bronco," Asa teased lightly, "'Least I can do for all your help around here is make sure you're comfortable."

"But you let me stay here...and you  _pay_  me for doin' that work; it's not out of the goodness of my heart," Rook protested, turning his head toward him even if he couldn't see his face.

"Well I wasn't talkin' about doing work," Asa said simply.

Rook seemed to think about this, a furrow appearing between his eyebrows above the bandanna covering his eyes. Thunder snarled in the background, but it seemed to have moved a little bit further away, and aside from a flick of his tail and a slight squaring of his stance, he didn't seem to pay it very much mind.

"Then what're you talking about?"

"You've been a real help, just by bein' there; givin' me some company...even if you can be a preachy, sarcastic bastard at times and make the whole place smell like a barn." Figuring he'd poked enough fun, he turned serious for a moment. "You've given me some peace of mind, and a reason to laugh and let myself relax, if you'd believe such a thing."

"That does seem...a little far-fetched, boss," Rook shrugged, "I ain't doin' anything special, honest."

Asa smiled, a little glad that Rook couldn't see it, "More than I expected when I set out to hire myself a secretary to keep me from drownin' in paperwork. Never thought I'd find a friend as well as an assistant."

If he pointed it out, Rook would probably deny it for the rest of his natural-born life, but Asa could have sworn he saw his breath hitch, and the steady flustered flush of color flooding his cheeks only deepened as he ducked his head away.

There was a drawn-out moment of amiable silence. The air was a little awkward with the recent confession still hanging in it, but Asa was willing to bet neither of them were really uncomfortable. They'd both gotten rather used to relaxing in each other's presence.

"Feelin' any better, bronco?" Asa spoke up after almost a minute had passed.

Rook gave a quiet and rather breathy laugh, "I'm gonna need you to stop bein' so nice to me, or I might have to take your temperature to make sure you ain't comin' down with something."

"Call it a spell of temporary insanity..."

"Then I might have to quarantine you," Rook smirked, "Or have you shipped off to some loony bin somewhere."

"I'm sure it'll pass soon enough," Asa shrugged, "Can't have you gettin' ideas in your head and goin' around telling people your boss is  _nice_  and  _reasonable_ , can we?"

Hesitantly, Rook reached up and untied the bandanna from his face, returning it to its place around his neck. It seemed the storm had finally passed, and only the serene drumming of rain on the rooftop remained.

"They wouldn't believe me if I told 'em that," he said eventually, "It'll just have to be a deep, dark secret I carry to my grave."

"Good," Asa nodded, "Can't have you messin' up my reputation like you messed up my damn office."

"Both of those things were an' are pretty filthy boss," Rook remarked, "I did you a service."

Chuckling softly, Asa took a few steps back, now that the drama seemed to have passed, and flopped down on his bed, pulling the blanket over himself and turning away.

"You sure did, bronco...you sure did."


End file.
